The Walking Dead (1936)

Hell hath no fury like a Karloff scorned. Or, to be more exact, a Boris Karloff fried for a murder he didn't commit. Just like Frankenstein, Boris' John Ellman is brought back from death, but The Walking Dead was made by Warner Bros. rather than Universal and instead of the torch wielding villagers with their quaint superstition, Ellman is up against fast-talking racketeers like Barton MacLane, Paul Harvey, and Joseph Sawyer, in other words, the Warner Bros. stock company of dangerous misfits. The difference is between a slightly disturbing nightmare and the all-too-real dangers of modern city dwelling. But just as his most famous character, Karloff's The Walking Dead remains the drama's most sympathetic character -- in fact, the drama's only sympathetic character, bland ingénues such as Marguerite Churchill and Warren Hull notwithstanding. Even the usually so kindly professor Edmund Gwenn turns against his "creation" in the end. ~ Hans J. Wollstein, All Movie Guide